Coordination entity planned for Thai-Japan HR development

Science and Technology Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj said yesterday that the entity was expected to be appointed some time this year.

The entity must be a state agency capable of coordinating with all relevant parties, he said. However, which agency that will be has yet to be finalised, pending the final conclusion between Thailand and Japan on the matter.

Pichet made the remark at the second Roundtable Conference on Human Resource Development yesterday jointly hosted by the Embassy of Japan and Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) in collaboration with Nation Multimedia Group.

The initiative, which is still in the draft stage, focuses on producing highly skilled workers, especially practical engineers, to fit with the demand of Japanese companies in Thailand.

Another panellist at the conference, Ryosuke Chono, managing director of Toray Industries (Thailand), said this country should focus on producing value-added engineers in order to solve the lack of highly skilled workers.

He said Japanese businesses expected to shift more investment back to other Asian countries from China, where wages are on the rise.

Panellist Professor Dr Suchatvee Suwansawat, president of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, said the Thai-Japanese initiative should not focus only on producing practical engineers but also on “super engineers” with high knowledge on advanced and future technology and research and development.

He said one problem was that many competent engineers shifted to different career paths such as banking that offered higher incentives. Moreover there are not many R&D jobs in Thailand to keep |talented engineers in the field.